What Dreams May Bring
by Miaka2u
Summary: After the murder of his clan by his older brother, Uchiha Sasuke is plagued by awful nightmares. The only thing that could be worse would be to have that murderer coming from the dreams to torment you even more. ItaSasu
1. Enter In Here

**What Dreams May Bring**

Summary: After the murder of his clan by his older brother, Uchiha Sasuke is plagued by awful nightmares. The only thing that could be worse would be to have that murderer coming from the dreams to torment you even more.

Pairings: Possible Itachi/Sasuke

Rating: PG-13 / T (this chapter for disturbing mental images)

Disclaimer: Naruto and company are not owned by me, nor I am not making any money off of this.

"_Enter In Here – Chapter One"_

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The hurt was still there.

From what he could recollect from his training lesson at the pond a few weeks ago, the chakra burns on the sides of his mouth had healed within two weeks almost completely. It had been a little over a month since the catastrophic events of that single night in which his whole life was destroyed. This hurt still felt fresh like tiny cuts were opening his heart minute by minute, day by day; why wouldn't it heal?

Was it because he didn't have a mother clean it off for him and patch it up? Was it because he didn't have a father to protect him from the source of the cutting?

Sasuke sighed unhappily as he crawled into the unfamiliar bed of yet another family who was willing to take in the sole survivor of the Uchiha clan. This was the fifth family he'd been sent to live with since that night he had returned home to find the streets covered in blood and his brother standing above his beloved parents. It wasn't that he wasn't a good guest to the families that were willing to foster him, but most found that the nightmares he suffered with required too much attention or were too disturbing.

Those nightmares, filled with the brother whom he'd grown to admire and love, filled with the cries of familiar voices and bloody, mutilated faces of familiar people. Those nightmares too dark for a child as young and innocent as he should have been. Every night those evil dreams plagued his mind and wouldn't allow him the long peaceful rest that a growing boy his age needed. They only allowed him to wake up sobbing, panting for air, and feeling so completely lonely and lost.

It was no wonder that he didn't want to go to sleep. He'd demand the light be left on and demand the door stay open. But, every night his requests were not made in this house. They said he wouldn't be able to sleep otherwise and forced him to conform to their standards of rest. So the lamp remained off and the door remained closed, locking him into a room of secluded darkness cut off from the safety of supposedly loving arms.

The second hand ticked around the clock and Sasuke watched it by the light peeking through the blinds and hoping, that by some form of hypnotism, it would lull him to a sound sleep. It was about the only thing in the very plain room that was somewhat interesting with its intricate designs of golden trees intertwining together to form the base and the beautiful sable face contrasting the clear jewels on the hands. His eyes slowly began to close and heavy and deep breaths confirmed that the little Uchiha was sound asleep like he had so often prayed for.

All was quiet in the small Konoha house, as it should be. Every door locked tight and every window secured. No one could enter or exit without some disturbance. But, dreams don't come in through windows or doors.


	2. Evil Awaits

**What Dreams May Bring**

Summary: After the murder of his clan by his older brother, Uchiha Sasuke is plagued by awful nightmares. The only thing that could be worse would be to have that murderer coming from the dreams to torment you even more.

Pairings: Possible Itachi/Sasuke

Rating: PG-13 / T (for disturbing mental images, blood, and gore)

Disclaimer: Naruto and company are not owned by me, nor I am not making any money off of this.

"_Evil Awaits – Chapter Two"_

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Lulled into a dreaming state by the sound of ticking from the elegant clock resting beside his bed, the young boy couldn't possibly be aware of the danger perched right outside of the window of his subconscious mind. Thoughts began to assemble in his mind, which soon began to be played out into a story. He was now dreaming.

The bed the boy was now fast asleep in belonged to the family he had now stayed the longest with, but probably liked the very least. There were no other children in the house, just an unhappy husband and wife with plenty of oddities in both their personality and décor. It wasn't a typical home in a shinobi village, with almost nothing in the house except a few strange mirrors and paintings, with a scroll thrown here or there. About the only thing that linked them to the shinobi world was the variety of plants they grew in a green house connected to their house in the back that was used for medicine and study.

Sasuke's room was probably the strangest of all the rooms in the house, however. It was located on the most western side of the house and you had to step down to get into it. The young Uchiha liked to imagine it was once a secret exit to the street outside that used to sell mysterious things; after all, the shops outside of his window did look a bit mysterious with their broken down doors and their dirty looking windows and this family wasn't exactly normal.

He had always thought the window in his room was too big for the wall and that the bed had been put at a strange angle. Nothing seemed to fit in the room quite right, including that almost antique looking clock beside his bed. He knew he wasn't an exception to not fitting in the room either. He didn't like it in the room. He'd often stay later at school just so he wouldn't have to study in his own room. But, he never complained since, for once, he wasn't gotten rid of like a plague once the family found out about his dreams.

Perhaps the reason they didn't bother with his nightmares was the fact that their room was on the completely opposite side of the house. Perhaps it was because they stayed up very late at night studying their nocturnal plants in the green house. Perhaps it was because they simply thought that there was nothing that could be done about his nightmares. Whatever it was, he sometimes wished they'd offer him some type of haven to run to when he was having his one of his nightmarish fits.

The young boy twitched in his sleep as the second hand finished revolving around the clock's face to signal it was now midnight.

There he was, once again, standing in a familiar street in the dead of night, not in the strange room that he knew (regardless of its oddness) was safe. The full moon was shining above with clouds rolling by at a speed that was a little too fast to be normal. Everything was in black and white; everything, that is, besides the ruby color of blood smeared against the buildings and streets of the once proud Uchiha clan.

He let out a scream as he witnessed with his own eyes the ease at which his older brother murdered. His long sword, received as a gift from ANBU, ran across three men's throats. Each one of those men wearing the Uchiha's crest and each one fell to the ground, but the amount of blood that fell from that sword was even more terrifying.

The ground was littered with dead bodies and small rivers of dark red blood and Sasuke made his way through it all, following his brother as if he were connected to him by some invisible, unbreakable chains. He didn't want to see this! He didn't want to hear there voices crying out to be saved!

And all was quiet and clean; every horror from before completely gone. He was at a new street that was oddly familiar to him. As he continued to walk he could hear the sound of himself stepping something that was a bit thicker than water. Plop. Plop, plop.

He dared himself to look down and immediately found himself standing in a small pool of crimson blood coming from a departed mass of tangled limbs; he was certain it was the foster father he had been dreaming of earlier before this nightmare had begun. He knew the lifeless arm around the corner belonged to the foster mother. The house now in front of him, more particularly the window in front of him, was the one from the western room of his parent's house. He could see that clock from the angle he was standing at.

The clock was picked up by someone in the house, someone wearing the scarlet colors of the two people he'd grown to know over the past few weeks. He watched the man and he watched the clock with its second hand turning on its axis, but rather abnormally. It was revolving to the beat of a heart. A heart that was very close to him, now that his attention was almost completely focused on it. It was so loud.

It was so loud, he failed to hear the breaking of the glass as the murderer broke through the window and was now standing in front of him, his sword at the ready, red eyes glowing. And Sasuke realized he was now holding that very same clock that was emitting the soft sound of a heartbeat.

His traitorous older brother began to suddenly break the beautiful clock into a thousand pieces and from it came a torrent of blood that began to drown him. He dropped the clock, which was now restored to its original state and ticking. Ticking, ticking, tick, tick, tick.

The young Uchiha heir awoke with a cry, panting for air. He shuddered and then focused around the rest of the room to reassure himself that all was safe in the plain room. And, of course, all was safe in the room, except, as strange as it seemed, the clock that was at his bedside table, when he has first closed his obsidian eyes to the urge of sleep, was no longer there. Instead it was placed on the window pane and had seemed to have stopped ticking its hand stopped one minute after midnight.

The small boy knew that no monsters lurked in this house. He knew that there was no such thing as ghosts or goblins. But what he was still too young to completely understand was that evil could take many forms and that evil had its way of letting him know he was being carefully watched.


	3. Let's Play

**What Dreams May Bring**

Summary: After the murder of his clan by his older brother, Uchiha Sasuke is plagued by awful nightmares. The only thing that could be worse would be to have that murderer coming from the dreams to torment you even more.

Pairings: Itachi/Sasuke

Rating: R / M (for sexual and incestuous implied themes)

Disclaimer: Naruto and company are not owned by me, nor I am not making any money off of this.

Thanks: I want to thank both Crystal Renee for editting some of this for me (and for reading my Uchihacest even though she doesn't support it, she supports her friends) and lwintergreen (LJ username, because I don't tink she has a name on here) for editting and suggesting better wording for this chapter.

"_Let's Play - Chapter Three"_

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Something about the risk of being somewhere forbidden and dangerous relieved him. Something about toying with fragile and powerless minds made him feel light. And something about knowing the game you were about to play would certainly drive a person mad, made him want to start play all the more.

The traitor to the infamous Uchiha clan had indeed visited his little brother. In fact he was still watching him. His little brother was sitting up in his bed staring at the clock he had placed on the window pane, knowing all too well that Sasuke had been dreaming about him. Sasuke had talked in his sleep about that clock and it had intrigued Itachi almost to jealousy. The older Uchiha brother picked it up and examined it carefully, taking in every little detail about it in the few minutes he was allowed to safely be in the sleeping boy's room.

As he sat on the rooftop across the street from the Sasuke's house, he mused that he could compare it to his little brother's sleeping figure. The intricate gold tree limbs intertwined together were like the mess of tangled sheets wrapped around the boy's arms and legs. The clock's hands, so clear and steadily moving around the face, were like his flawless, porcelain skin and made the fluid lines of his body. Lastly, the sable face of the clock that held the time, the reason for a clock's existence, was reminiscent of Sasuke's coal black eyes. Those eyes that could so easily tell the story of his successes and failures, show his desires and disgusts, and would eventually give him the reason for his existence as an Uchiha- the Sharingan.

He had not broken the clock; it simply needed to be wound up again. Itachi smirked realizing that was another thing the clock and his little brother had in common, if they weren't wound up they would cease to work and simply look pretty. He'd have to push his little brother just barely to extremes if he wanted the boy to pursue him and surpass him. If you overturned a clock it would stop working and if you let it get too close to the end of its turning cycle it would slow down, neither of those suited Sasuke's ability. It'd be a difficult task to continue winding him up, but it most certainly would be worth it.

Itachi had been rather bored with his tasks from the organization Akatsuki. He had been apart of the group for a little over two months (he had joined a little before he had killed his entire clan) and didn't derive any amusement from murdering people that were supposedly getting them closer to world domination. There was no companionship worth his time in the group and free time spent loitering in their meeting place wasn't something Itachi considered entertaining. His demented mind much more preferred playing games. Sasuke was his favorite pastime, and toying with Sasuke was his favorite game; it always had been.

While other children were nonchalantly eating their popsicles after school and scraping their knees, Itachi had graduated the academy at age seven and had become a chuunin at age ten; he never really had time to play childish games. But he would enjoy watching Sasuke's little face, beaming with excitement, when he would come home covered with grass stains and sweat, explaining in length the fun he had building forts and which girl he thought was cute at the park.

Just like the games, Itachi never had time for crushes; the only female influence in his life was his mother. So he didn't really find it odd when his admiration for Shisui, a teenager almost in his twenties, was mistaken for love. It was a little after he received his Sharingan at age twelve that he, not bothering to ask his parents about his feelings toward the other boy, unembarrassed and unashamed confessed to Shisui. After rejection and only a few weeks later, Itachi couldn't help but notice this same sort of feeling toward his little brother, only just a bit stronger. And not too long after he secretly began watching Sasuke for his likes and dislikes, he began to search for something that would allow him to get close without rejection.

Sure, he knew it was twisted to have incestuous feelings for his younger sibling, his little_ brother_ no less. But, after being made a thirteen year old ANBU captain who had seen more death and corruption than people four or five years his senior nothing was twisted. After a while, you only care about your own self interests and pleasure because you learn life is too short.

With his ANBU training, he was able to silently get to his feet and leave the shinobi village without any notice. He would be back to continue the game; after, all it was always more fun to play a game with someone whom you knew would ultimately make you the victor, even if it was just a child's game.


End file.
